First edition of this important military treatise , very famous at the time and much consulted. Count Lancelot de Turpin de Crissé (1716-1795) had a brilliant military career and distinguished himself particularly on the battlefields of Germany; his last post was that of commander of the Scarpe fort in Douai. He was awarded the Grand Cross of Saint-Louis in 1787. In 1792 he went into exile in Germany, where he died around 1795. A member of the academies of Berlin, Nancy and Marseille, his works on the art of war were highly appreciated: this Essai was translated into German (1757), Russian (1758-1759) and English (1761).
Querard: "he tries here to establish an army in all the positions and in all the countries in which it can be found during a campaign, providing the means to defend and attack it (...) He never fails to accompany with solid reflections the account of the greatest war operations, and that of the maneuvers practiced by the most famous ancient and modern generals".